Description:
More than a dictionary of concepts in physical geography, this book includes a variety of analyses reaching back to origins of terms, making the work of interest to intellectual historians. The search for the intellectual genesis of each term, its development, usage, and change in meaning is accomplished with brevity and clarity. References and sources of additional information accompany each entry and provide readers with the opportunity to further their inquiry. . . . Highly recommended for upper-division and graduate students and general readers Choice
This volume provides definitions and historical perspective for specialized and technical concepts used in current research and writing in the field of physical geography. Of particular value to the serious student and professional in geography and related fields, the dictionary covers some 100 major concepts and provides the most complete reference available in the field to date. For each concept, the authors provide detailed definitions, arranged from the earliest to the most recent. They proceed to describe the historical growth of each term using original research works for references whenever possible. This enables the researcher to see how the concept has evolved over time, how it is currently used, and what the general direction of research might be in the future. Each entry also includes a list of prominent references concerning the concept and a bibliography of additional sources of information available such as texts, literature, reviews, important articles, and bibliographies. Complete cross referencing of concepts and an appendix that groups concepts into broad categories make the dictionary an especially valuable reference tool for both beginning students interested in the scope of physical geography and advanced students pursuing graduate study in the field.Review Quotes: "This source is the fifth in the Reference Sources for the Social Sciences and Humanities series. 'Dictionaries in this series uniformly present brief, substantive discussions of the etmological development and contemporary use of the significant concepts in a discipline. They are distinguished from other dictionaries by their heavy emphasis on bibliographic information. Readers of this Dictionary will find about 100 alphabetically arranged entries selected by the authors with the intention of presenting those concepts deemed most important by our colleagues'. Designed for serious students and professionals in geography and related fields, this volume places individual concepts within the proper historical research context.' . . . The Dictionary of Concepts in Physical Geography will be a worthwhile purchase in academic libraries where students and professionals require the etymological background of major terms and the tremendous amount of bibliographic information the dictionary includes."-Reference Books Bulletin